Those Pesky Wrackspurts
by RedIsNotAColour
Summary: As much as he hates himself for it, Draco is struggling with the task the Dark Lord has set him. But just as his protective walls begin to crumble to the unforgiving ground, a reminder that not everything in his world is so terribly hopeless drops out of the sky - in the shape of a ditzy, spectrespecs- clad girl. Druna, but doesn't have to be read as such Oneshot


**This oneshot can be read as Druna, but doesn't necessarily HAVE to be. Just a light nudge at the idea. I tried my very best not to make this like other Druna fics I've read, where both Luna and Draco are extremely OOC and have a 'running off into the sunset' moment. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!**:

**Ah yes, I would also like to thank Laurawesome for BETAing this fic :)**

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Draco Malfoy sat himself down on the hard ground, leaning against the brittle bark of the beech tree by the Black Lake. The sun's cheerful rays were casting light and warmth over the Hogwarts grounds, but he barely noticed due to the civil war taking place inside him; a constant reminder of what he was trying to avoid thinking about.

**_I can't cope with this._**

**_What am I going to do? _**

**_I can't do this._**

Warmth and comfort were alien concepts to him, foreign notions that he could no longer imagine. Even the grass felt spiky and unpleasant to him, dead and cold; whereas to others if felt soft and natural, refreshing.

**_But if I don't…They'll die._**

**_I have to do it._**

**_There's no other way._**

A freezing panic trickled through Draco's body, leaving him feeling overheated and uneasy. He didn't shiver, he was used to the feeling by now; he recoiled into himself slightly, breathing through the nausea and blinking back the feeling that the world was closing in on him.

**_I am not a murderer._**

**_I'm sixteen._**

**_What would mother think if I did do it?_**

A cold sweat broke out on his pale forehead; he raised a hand to wipe it away and mentally cursed himself for allowing it to shake.

**_But I would be doing it for her._**

**_But she doesn't want me to do it._**

**_How would I know what she wants? She hardly talks at all anymore._**

**_She's ashamed of me._**

**_Her son._**

**_Who has to murder or be murdered._**

**_Murder, or we will all be murdered._**

His constantly tense body tingled with multiple confusing emotions as the war raged on. New thoughts and worries jumped out at him, one after another, relentlessly.

**_I was chosen!_**

**_Potter has always been the chosen one, the golden boy, but this time it's me!_**

**_But I don't want to do it._**

**_I can't._**

**_But I have to._**

**_I have to kill him._**

**_How?_**

**_Everything I have tried so far has failed._**

**_I'm pathetic._**

**_It's no wonder father is never happy with me._**

**_I have to do it._**

**_He will be proud of me._**

**_And The Dark Lord won't kill him or mother._**

**_But I don't want to._**

**_I need to, I want to._**

**_But I can't._**

**_The Dark Lord himself can't even do it, how am I supposed to?_**

**_But he will kill us if I don't._**

**_He can't kill mother, I won't let him._**

Head spinning with worries that seemed to have been set on repeat, Draco felt his eyes burn with tears; he had gotten progressively worse at controlling his tear ducts, only ever managing to hold in his emotions whilst concentrating on the control needed for Occlumency when around…_him._

The Black Lake and the edge of the Forbidden Forest blurred, Draco's protective wall of control about to crumble to the ground before –

"_Oof!_" He cried as a large, heavy something landed on his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

The thing moved, and Draco saw with a start that it was Luna Lovegood, an insane, fifth year, Ravenclaw weirdo; in his second year, when Luna had first started at Hogwarts, Draco and his fellow Slytherins had come up with a nickname for her - 'Loony', because that's what she was, a lunatic. Suffice to say the name had stuck, and even now many of her fellow Ravenclaws called her 'Loony' behind her back.

"Oh. Hello, Draco," She greeted him in that unsettlingly serene voice of hers.

Her face was obscured by some bizarre, swirly glasses that were far too big for her. It was rather creepy, actually. She just lay on his lap, staring at him with those stupid glasses and awful radish earrings dangling from her earlobes, as though falling out of trees and onto people was something she did often.

"W-What're you-?" Draco tasted salt and realised a tear had escaped his white lashed and dribbled down his cheek, into his mouth. He jerked away from Luna's penetrating gaze, sniffed forcibly and hastily slashed his hand over his cheeks.

"I was in that tree," She replied simply, pointing past the elder boy's head at the branches above. "The Nargles have misplaced all of my clothes, so I was looking for them. My favourite jumper was in the tree, so I was retrieving it when the branch snapped." She held up a dark blue, knitted jumper for him to see.

**_What in the name of Merlin is a Nargle?_**

Draco was too upset and conflicted to understand anything the nonsensical girl was saying. "Wha-?"

"Hmm," Luna interrupted him, sounding indifferent ad curious at the same time. "You seem to have an awful infestation of Wrackspurts in your ears. They're invisible, but I can see them; they're flying about your head. I can see them with these," She gestured towards the freaky glasses. "Spectrespecs. They help-"

Draco couldn't take anymore of the Ravenclaw's insane rambling; it was doing his head in. He had been so caught up in trying to make sense of the ridiculous words pouring from her mouth that he hadn't even realised she was still lying on him. He shoved her off his lap and onto the grass roughly, where she stood up daintily, undeterred by his rude interruption.

He needed her to go away, so she didn't see his walls fall down.

"Get lost, Loony," He muttered through gritted teeth and clenched jaws. All of his energy had vanished, he couldn't even be bothered thinking of a decent insult to throw at her anymore.

The fifth year looked at him for a minute, mouth slightly upturned at the corners as per usual. It was unnerving; he couldn't see her eyes, but could feel them boring into him, imagining them being as large and round as they usually were.

"You look upset," She stated. Draco tensed. It sounded like more of an observation than her actually caring; no one ever seemed to care. "Must be all those Wrackspurts," She continued obliviously. "See you later, Draco. Have a good day." And with that she set off at a childish skip towards the castle. "Pesky Wrackspurts…" Draco could hear her muttering to herself. "More people need to wear…completely unaware…poor Draco….infestation…"

**_Freak,_** Draco thought to himself, slightly taken aback by her departing sentence and finding some comfort in her stupidity. **_At least she hadn't asked what was wrong. Then I would have had to threaten her, hex her; I really don't have the energy anymore._**

**_Loony and her stupid imaginary creatures, selling her father's idiotic magazine and _**_skipping__**, for Merlin's sake!**_

**_Who actually _**_skips__** at the age of fifteen? As though they have absolutely no cares in the world?**_

**_I envy her._**

**_All she has to worry about is whether or not some of the Ravenclaw's steal her belongings. _**

**_But even then she doesn't think anything of it! She thinks it's those Margles…Niggles…whatever those nonexistent things are, doing it!_**

**_And what were those other things called?_**

**_Maxrurts?_**

**_Racksports?_**

**_Whatever._**

**_An infestation, flying around me?_**

Draco swiftly glanced about himself, as close to laughter as he could get these days.

**_I think I would know if something was flying around my head, thank you very much, Loony. _**

**_Luna-tic._**

**_But if they're invisible…_** A smaller, believing voice commented from somewhere at the back of his mind.

He suddenly felt like a small child again; in bed at night and feeling as though the monster from under his bed is staring at him, an inch from his face, but he can't see because it's so dark.

Mentally hating himself for being so juvenile and foolish, he flapped a hand by his ears in the hope that it would dispel anything he couldn't see, eyes darting across the school's grounds to make sure no one was watching.

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**So what did you think? Did I do the two of them justice? Please let me know with a review!**

**~Red**


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